GM continued to make E7 locomotives through early 1949, while the E8 was introduced in late 1949. A total of 32 railroads bought E7s. Note that all of the paintings of E7s used on these data cards are based on the same foundational drawing.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Southern Pacific’s first E7, number 6000, was delivered in April 1947 in the ill-fated Golden State Rocket color scheme. While it is sad that the Golden State Rocket never ran, the paint scheme is unimaginative and even downright ugly. Why are there only two stripes? Why are the words “Southern Pacific” painted in an aluminum box rather than over the orange paint? This is clearly an attempt to have a simplified scheme that would be easy to repaint, but it was soon painted over in the unsimplified Daylight scheme shown in the card below.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Delivered just four months after the 6000, locomotive 6003 is in the much more familiar Daylight scheme. This scheme has pinstripes between the orange and red stripes and would last at least until 1958, when SP began painting its passenger equipment silver with a single red stripe.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Pere Marquette locomotives used the blue and yellow colors of the University of Michigan. This locomotive has a curved yellow stripe reminiscent of the bow wave used on the first City of Miami locomotives. While it is nice to see more creativity than simple horizontal stripes, I’m not sure a single wave works well on a long train. Pere Marquette purchased eight E7s and this one was delivered in June 1947.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

This locomotive seems to have a split personality. Small letters between the ventilation screens say “Pere Marquette” while grossly oversized letters below the window board say “Chesapeake and Ohio.” Pere Marquette, of course, was a subsidiary of C&O, but it isn’t clear why this locomotive had to shout that out while the previous one did not. Both locomotives were part of the same order but this one wasn’t delivered until several months after the previous one.

Like Norfolk & Western, C&O was a coal hauler and so came late to the Diesel game. When it finally bought some Diesels, it had them painted the same colors as its subsidiary Pere Marquette, which explains why a railroad headquartered in Cleveland used University of Michigan colors on its locomotives.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Here’s a card or flyer bragging that New York Central was using GM locomotives to power the 20th Century Limited. Not designed to be postally used, the back has a few words about the locomotives and some specifications. We’ve previously seen the card for New York Central 4000, the first of 50 E7s the railroad would buy. This one came near the end of the run and was not delivered until February 1948.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Here’s a postcard for Bangor & Aroostook 700, which was made in April 1949 as one of the last E7s to roll off the line. Unfortunately, I don’t have a back for this card.